Former PBO columnist, author and Admiral’s Cup winning navigator, Mark Chisnell confesses to experiencing trepidation and self doubt when being asked to preface the latest Marine Accident Investigation Branch Safety Digest, published today (Download below).

But a deadline’s a deadline and the content of the Small Craft Safety Digest for December 2009 as ever speaks for itself.

‘many of the previous introductions were endorsements of this fine publication. I quickly realised that the sensible way to begin would be to add my own – anything you can do to prepare yourself for a moment of crisis is worth doing, and reading the Safety Digest definitely qualifies. We don’t all have the luxury of shipping with crews who have done hundreds of thousands of miles. Fortunately, second-hand experience is almost as valuable and a lot easier to come by – you can find it right here in these very pages. And so I’ll finish how I began – with an exhortation to read the Safety Digest.

https://www.pbo.co.uk/fileBank/pbo/PDF/part3_smallcraft_3-09.pdf